All day Friday while at work I was looking forward to my after work run at Spanish Landing. It just so happened that Friday was one of the hottest days of the year, unseasonably hot for this time of year; the Santa Ana winds which are winds that blow from the desert to the coastline made the heat worse and really dry. Still after work at 4:30PM, I thought it would get cooler by the time I stated running. I was mistaken it was hot! Even though I was at the shoreline, it was still 83 degF/28.3 C Accuweather showed a RealFeel of 90F/32C.

I gotta tell you after I started running, I really regretted choosing that time to run. My reward; a headache that persisted this morning. At the 4.76Mile point in my run my phone died. iSmoothRun did save my run up to that point so this morning I exported the partial run from iSmoothRun to the MapMyRun site and manually map the remainder of my run.

Spanish Landing Run

My estimated run combining to partial run and the manually map section of the run was: 5.73miles/9.2Km in 53:28 minutes at an avg pace of 9:20/mile. My intended run was 6 miles so I came close.

Here are highlights of my run; at the end of this you will find additional pictures from my run. Aside from the ambient temperature, the heat that was bouncing off the white concrete and reflecting off the water, it was an interesting run. I ran the area near the San Diego airport. I started at Spanish Landing which is a park that marks the location of the landing of two Spanish ships in May of 1769 which would begin the occupation of Alta California.

Historically accurate replica of Cabrillo’s San Salvador

At the entrance of the park is also where you will find, for now, the assembly site of the San Salvador. The project is the building of a replica of the San Salvador, a ship that was the first European ship to enter San Diego Bay and explore the west coast. Along with the ship are displays such as a black smith shop and native huts. I did notice one curious thing about the ship, propellers.

Running along the shoreline, I spotted two guys and a jet ski; there was a hose attached to the jet ski and jets attached to the feet of one of the guys. When the guy on the jet ski would rev his jet ski, it would propel the other guy in the air from two streams of water. I was tempted to stay and watch as I have never seen anything like this but continued on my run.

WaterJet Shoes powered by a JetSki? AquaMan!

At about a mile into my run and at the Eastern end of Spanish Landing, I got to the Cancer Survivors Park here you will find a number of beautiful structures, sculptures and artwork.

“Cancer Survivors Park was conceived by Richard and Annette Bloch as a way to disassociate cancer from death and was inspired by Richard’s successful treatment and recovery from what was thought to be terminal cancer. The park not only encourages current patients to have the will to fight but subconsciously gives healthy people the will to fight should they ever subsequently be diagnosed with the disease. A tribute for the living, the park is a daily reminder that cancer doesn’t mean death. San Diego is one of only sixteen cities selected by the Bloch Foundation for installation of a Cancer Survivors Park.”

Once at the end of the park I turned right on Harbor Island Street that would take me onto a peninsula that runs parallel to Spanish Landing where you can see downtown and North Island Naval Air Station on Coronado Island. Moored on North Island while I was running was USS Ronald Reagan (CVN-76) a US Navy Nimitz-class nuclear-powered supercarrier. Named in honor of former United States President Ronald Reagan.

Once I reached the west end of the peninsula and started running east, I was provided a beautiful skyline view of the City Of San Diego directly in front of me and to the right was North Island Naval Air Station. I was dying from the heat and every time I passed a tree, I was tempted to stop in its shade and take in the view but I knew if I did, I’d be done and end up walking back. So I soldiered on.

View of the City of San Diego from Harbor Island Drive

I was glad to saw a US Navy, US Marine and two civilian men and one woman running so I didn’t feel like I was the only one crazy enough to be running in the heat. The rest of the run was back along the same path I had run only in the opposite direction most with the sun pounding me in the face.

Here are some of the sites along my run for your viewing pleasure:

Near the Start of my run at Spanish Landing Park

AquaMan!

Historically accurate replica of Cabrillo’s San Salvador

San Salvador Main Mast

Cancer Survivors Parks

Cancer Survivors Parks _ Road to Recovery

Cancer Survivors Parks

Cancer Survivors Parks

Cancer Survivors Parks

Cancer Survivors Park- sculpture created by the renowned artist Victor Salmones. This sculpture is located in “Road to Recovery Plaza

“Island Arbor,” a piece of public art by Christopher Puzio at Tom Ham’s Lighthouse on Harbor Island (City of San Diego in the background)

The Mission Bell Marker system has existed on the historic route of the El Camino Real since 1906. The original marker system intended installation of bells one mile apart along the entire length of the El Camino Real from San Diego to Sonoma

View of Naval Base Coronado from Harbor Island Drive

View of the entrance into the bay of San Diego. Point Loma on the right

6 Responses to RUN: Spanish Landing – HOT HOT HOT

I’d never seen anything like that. The guy on the jets would shoot up in the air and then drive or more like rocket into the water and then pop back up in the air. it was cool and at that point I would have loved to be doing it.